After an exhausting few days I can finally tell you all about the blogger event myself and my other half were invited to at Simon and Schuster UK on Monday.  It was an afternoon meeting with their fiction team, around twenty book bloggers as well as authors Paige Toon, Chris Carter and Tara Hyland.

First up Ally and Amanda took us through all the books that S&S have got coming out in the next few months. Now as a books blogger and a bookseller this was quite simply fantastic as I discovered a whole load of titles I want to read and also buy for my store.

We were then introduced to Suzanne Baboneau (Publishing Director), Maxine Hitchcock (Fiction Editorial Director) and Sara-Jade Virtue (Special Sales Manager and ex-Waterstone’s so very keen to say hello to her!). They took us through what they look for in a book, how it is sold and how S&S works in general when they are publishing and looking for new titles. Suzanne went into a lot of detail about how she buys news books which was fascinating to hear as well how she feels that Child 44 is so far her find of her career.

We then moved next door where we were greeted with not only beer and cupcakes but a room laden with free books and the authors. I had some great chats with Tara and Chris (used to be a guitarist for Julio Iglesias fact-fans) and then stocked up on a ton on books. My shoulder positively aches from carrying them all home!

Thanks to S&S for inviting us! It was also great to meet my fellow bloggers and put some faces to names at last. Liz from My Favourite Books has some photos from the event if you’re interested in seeing more.